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Clear road ahead for flats
A LAST line of resistance for protesters became a hurdle cleared with ease by the developers of a controversial seven-storey apartment block in Kentish Town as highways chiefs agreed road layout changes on Tuesday night.
Developers TRAC properties said work on a 48-flat complex overlooking Talacre Gardens will start in July after the council’s highest highway authority approved changes to Prince of Wales Road and Dalby Street.
A campaign opposing the development had pinned its last hopes on a public inquiry being forced into the road changes by the Executive Environment Committee, made up of the most senior councillors in the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition.
But as TRAC representative Chris Shaw said after the meeting: “We’re intending to start in July on pre-development works. There’s a degree of urgency, because the site’s been sitting there as an eyesore for a long time.”
The existing, public, Dalby Street – a cul-de-sac leading to Talacre Sports Centre – will be ‘stopped up’ and built over under the changes. A new Dalby Street – a private road belonging to the developers – will be built alongside, and changes to the layout of Prince of Wales Road to accommodate it will go ahead.
The development has been prevented from going ahead by determined protests from residents concerned over its size and by users of Talacre Gardens.
Critics have questioned the land deal which gave Dalby Street and two travellers’ caravan sites to TRAC once they had bought the derelict house on Prince of Wales Road which will be demolished to make way for the scheme.
As the New Journal revealed last year, the developers paid £190,000 for the house, and sold a share of the development to an overseas company for £3.5m within weeks of securing planning permission and the council land.
On Tuesday night, committee boss Cllr Mike Greene and members Cllr Keith Moffit and Cllr Andrew Marshall imposed a string of conditions on TRAC – including a requirement to have fully trained marshals controlling traffic on the new Dalby Street – but passed the road changes despite what Cllr Marshall described as ‘unease’ over the tight restraints of the site. |
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